Week 3: Environmental Influences

Week 3: Environmental Influences

[Name of the Writer]

[Name of the Institution]

Week 3: Environmental Influences

Harley-Davidson Case

Harley-Davidson is a motor company founded by W Harley and A Davidson in the year 1903. The company main function is the production of motorcycles in the region. As the main product of the company is motorcycles, the company had become the largest motorcycle manufacturer with a production of 28,000 motorcycles each year with having dealers in more than 67 countries around the world.

In 2008, the international sales of Harley-Davidson dropped by 13%, and revenues dropped by 30% while the stock price has fallen by70%. This happened due to the bad hit of the Great Recession. The company had not faced any decrease in sales and revenues before this happening. In 2012, the brand was 96th most valuable international brand of Harley-Davidson with 4 billion dollars value which was engaged in sales of different products (not only motorcycles). With the time, company’s loyal customers’ base helped the company in boosting sales up to 5.9 B but the total sales of the company are still lower than the sales before and in 2008 (Harley-Davidson Inc, 2019). Harley-Davidson was expected to be stable from 2013 to 2050, but the company struggled for decades due to the hit of the Great Recession in 2008 while the reputation of bikes also got blamed afterward.

Which Parts of a SWOT Analysis Could Provide the Greatest Value from a Strategic Planning Perspective

Opportunities part of SWOT Analysis usually provides the hugest and greatest value for/from a strategic planning perspective. Opportunities do so because potential opportunities are the things (goals) that every organization or company wants to accomplish. Hence, opportunities assist that how the company or business should do their strategic planning for such accomplishment. Beyond that, each opportunity in this part of SWOT Analysis provides value, based on its potential benefits to the company if company captures it.

Example

The specific example from the case of Harley-Davidson is as follows.

Harley increases its potential opportunities for growth through licensing the brand to merchandisers as well as they can grow by expanding to other products rather than only focusing on motorcycles. So these opportunities in the SWOT Analysis provide greater value to strategic planning (Harley-Davidson Inc, 2019). This means that the company would do strategic planning as they want to accomplish these opportunities.

How SWOT Data could be used To Increase this Organization’s Competitive Advantage

SWOT Analysis logically looks at the external and internal factors that have an impact on the business or company in terms of improving its performance or inversely impacting the organization. Here, internal factors Strengths and Weaknesses while the external factor is the Opportunities and Threats that let the business know what is happening in and outside so that the business take necessary actions. The actions are taken to decrease the inverse impact and take advantage of potential benefits. Hence, below are the ways which show how the data of SWOT can be used to increase the competitive edge.

Data of SWOT can be used to capture the potential opportunity that makes the organization a leading one over the rivals.

It assists in responding to every new and upcoming trend before someone else.

SWOT data help to know external advancements and implement technology accordingly to be on top.

It lets the organization know how competitors deal with changes as well as how you should deal in a better way (Lawler, 2017).

How the SWOT Data Could Be Used To Increase Innovation within This Organization

SWOT data can be utilized in several ways to enhance the level of innovation and creativity within the organization under discussion (Harley-Davidson). Below are the methods/means that how SWOT data can be used to increase innovation in Harley-Davidson company.

External factors in SWOT helps Harley-Davidson to identify the approaches that major competitors use for bringing innovation in their organizations and operations.

The data assist the organization (Harley-Davidson) to identify technological and human resource advancements in the market and industry and implement accordingly (Lawler, 2017).

Internal factors in SWOT can be used to analyze the existing innovation and creativity and related strategies within the organization and explore winning ideas for improving it.

References

Harley-Davidson Inc. (2019). Harley Davidson Case 2008 | Motorcycle. Scribd. Retrieved 13 September 2019, from https://www.scribd.com/doc/149108841/C-A-S-E-19-Harley-Davidson-Inc-2008

Lawler, E. E. (2017). Built to change: How to achieve sustained organizational effectiveness. Strategic Direction, 23(4).